Catalog Archive
Auction 101, Lot 67

"[Gemini and Cancer]", Flamsteed, John

Subject: Celestial

Period: 1729 (published)

Publication: Atlas Coelestis

Color: Hand Color

Size:
25.2 x 19.8 inches
64 x 50.3 cm
Download High Resolution Image
(or just click on image to launch the Zoom viewer)

Impressive large celestial chart featuring the constellations of Gemini, Canis Minor, and Cancer with parts of Linx, Auriga, Taurus, Orion, and Monoceros. John Flamsteed was appointed in 1675 to the newly created post of Astronomer Royal to the English crown. He resided at Greenwich where he compiled the first telescopic catalog of the positions and magnitudes of the northern stars. The resultant Stellarum Inerrantium Catalogues Britannicus was unfinished at the time of his death in 1719 and published in 1729 by his friends Joseph Crosthwait and Abraham Sharp. Even with repairs, a nice example of a very uncommon chart.

References: Warner p. 80.

Condition: B

Fine impression and color. A little light surface soiling. Professionally remargined on all sides and backed with Japanese tissue, repairing some minor tears on centerfold, with a tiny bit of facsimile of neatline in two places.

Estimate: $800 - $900

Sold for: $650

Closed on 12/4/2002

Archived